Partially upheld: incorrect tax reporting, administrative error, poor customer service complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs P complained that Santander submitted incorrect accounts under her name to HMRC, resulting in her being charged tax and fees for accounts belonging to another customer with the same surname and date of birth. Investigation revealed Santander had sent Mrs P tax certificates for the other customer's accounts. Although Santander acknowledged this error and attempted to assist Mrs P with HMRC, the ombudsman determined that Santander had submitted accurate identifying data (National Insurance number and address) to HMRC, making HMRC responsible for the initial error. The ombudsman partially upheld the complaint, ordering Santander to pay £250 compensation for the administrative error and poor customer service, but declining to order reimbursement of the HMRC charges.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman determined that while Santander sent incorrect tax certificates for another customer, the root cause of the HMRC tax charges was not Santander's fault. Santander had submitted accurate data to HMRC including Mrs P's National Insurance number and address, which should have been sufficient to identify her separately from the other customer with the same surname and date of birth. The error in HMRC's records appears to have originated with HMRC rather than Santander. However, Santander was at fault for the administrative error of sending tax certificates for another customer and for not providing sufficiently detailed information in its initial letter to assist with the HMRC appeal. The ombudsman considered £250 total compensation fair and reasonable for the distress and inconvenience caused by these errors.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website